“Everyone!” I loudly call out in choir with Emelia, sweat dripping down my neck and forehead but my smile is reaching out to my ears as the first day in Sapporo is almost finished. The crowd screams in response to us and I laugh, glancing around at my members to know if they are still standing around me. “Everyone! You have really given us the best time this evening!” Emelia roars out and holds up her hand in the air to welcome the response from our fans. My chest is moving wildly from running around, dancing three pop songs in a row for the encore and now taking some deep breaths to calm myself a bit while we are doing the ending. All of us are wearing cropped tops and a really goddess-looking curves double slit skirt that has allowed us to be both cool during the [Daze] encore and also feminine for [I Want a Man]. Mine is in black. Emelia leans forward to look at us. “Today,” she says in Japanese through the microphone, “it is someone’s birthday.” Our fans starts cheering right away and I take a step back to let Emelia and Julia see Carolina a bit better. Carolina looks a bit surprised. “Birthday?” she asks in Japanese. I think she knows what Emelia just said, but like always it is a surprise. We haven’t told Carolina anything about celebrating her on the stage with our fans, maybe she could’ve expected it but usually there is talk backstage if someone is planning something. “It is Carolina’s birthday today!” Maria cheers out and gets out from our line to turn towards Carolina, weirdly dancing for her and our fans are screaming insanely. “Um…” I lowly say in the microphone, not saying anything as Emelia continues to talk. Instead I look behind us, wondering where the cake could be. I see one of our dancers preparing to get up on the main stage behind us and I take another step back away from my members, trying to see if they will bring out the cake so I can run over and help them. But the male dancer is glancing out. Does he wonder if they should come out? “Are you ready, Nori-chan?” I quietly ask in the microphone, hoping he will hear me. He looks behind the stage before giving me the thumbs up. As the other ladies are still chatting and fooling, I decide to take on the mission to bring up the cake. I start to make my way over to the main stage to get the cake that Nori and two others are bringing up on the stage on a cart. I make it to the main stage before the voices of my ladies get my attention, as they have noticed me disappearing and seeing what is on the main stage. “Hannah, are you really bringing that here by yourself?” Julia’s worried voice is heard, speaking Korean, when I put my hands on the cart to roll it over to the ladies and I stop to look at them with a pout. The way over to them seems far, fans cheering on the sides, Nori and the others are already hurrying off the stage, without a worry giving me the cart with the birthday cake on. I bring the microphone to my lips. “I’m coming to you, ladies,” I say in Japanese before I put the microphone down on the cart and slowly, slowly, I start pulling it off the main stage. My hands still hurts, they are a lot better and I am only wearing a simple -coloured bandage to protect my injuries, it doesn’t hold me back from wearing accessories anymore and it doesn’t hold me back to perform as usual either. But still, holding the cart I am careful, not just because of my hands but also because the cart is rolling weirdly on the stage so I am slowly making my way out to the others. After a few meters the crowd starts laughing, finding it funny and there are four impatient ladies waiting for me. “Grandma, hurry up!” Emelia jokes. “My birthday cake~” Carolina cheers, not as surprised as I had hoped she would be over the cake. “Hurry up, hurry up,” Julia cutely says, receiving cheers at her cute tone. I stop the cart to pick up the microphone, receiving complaints from the ladies that I shouldn’t talk if I have to stop but I still do it. “Good things are worth waiting for,” I wisely say in Japanese. “The cake is crying,” Maria says in Japanese. “Woah!” “Your Japanese has gotten good!” Emelia calls out at our leader. “I am coming with the cake,” I tell them before I put down the microphone on the cart to continue my slow journey over the stage. It does take time but eventually Emelia comes over to help me, or that is what I think. She comes to explain the cake for our fans and show it to the camera filming for the big screen, and then she puts her finger on the cake to taste it, which makes all of us scream – out of jealousness as we also want to taste it. “My cake!” Carolina cries and hurries over to us to save the birthday cake. She drags the cart to get it away from Emelia and I am fast to take my microphone from the cart as I let go of the cart. Emelia laughs at Carolina’s hard try to save the cake from being eaten before reaching her, and what happens next makes me even sit down on the stage, laughing. The cart is not made to be rolling on the stage, it kept sliding when I held it for some reason and to have Carolina drag it harder and faster, and it slides to the side and when Carolina turns around to hold it with both hands: the cart somehow decides to tilt a bit. Not just a bit; it tilts enough for the cake to fall off and it is like half a second where the five of us, our fans watching, the staff and crew backstage all are holding our breaths seeing the cake we had prepared so well fall down on the stage and splash with half of it on the stage and the other half on the side onto the spotlight and effects and it’s like the life in us goes down with it; Emelia also falls down on her heels when the cake has fallen. Maria puts her hands to her stomach, laughing so loudly in the microphone that I think our fans laughs more because of her unique laugh rather than the cake falling down. Carolina’s face-expression is priceless. She is the only one not laughing, she rather looks destroyed, looking at the cake and then up at us with an expression asking why this happened. “What just happened?” Emelia asks in the microphone, pointing at Carolina and the cake and laughs with our fans. “What just happened, everyone?” I am unable to speak, just laughing so much and when looking at our fans next to where I am sitting I just keep laughing towards them. “What… just happened?” Carolina repeats Emelia’s words and because she repeats the Japanese already said, I laugh even more. “Why did you do that?!” Maria suddenly fires up. That makes me laugh too. The trigger to my laugh attack was the cake falling, but now I am laughing at everything that standing up is out of my abilities at the moment and I can’t get out another sound than laughter. “Why did the cake fall?” Carolina asks with her head tilted to the side, not knowing how this could have happen. “Ya,” Maria says and walks over to Carolina to punish her with her knuckles lightly hitting Carolina’s head, she says in Korean; “Do you know for how long we prepared that cake?” Carolina is speechless but her face-expression says enough. She had looked forward to the cake, but it fell on the stage. “We can eat it anyway?” she suggests and I fall down on my back from laughing that I can’t see Emelia actually squat down by the cake. Our mascot steps forward to the cake too, I see her when I sit up, and I see just in time when Emelia doesn’t taste the cake with her finger again but instead grabs a fistful of it and with her other hand pulls Carolina’s arm so there is no way for her to escape when that fistful of cake splashes up in her face. The whole hall burst out in surprised laughter, Maria cheers and claps her hands and Julia is jumping furthest away. It was planned to cover Carolina’s face with cake, but we did definitely not plan on letting the cake land on the stage first. Turns out that doesn’t really matter, it is just another fun thing. After splashing Carolina’s face with cake, Carolina takes a hold of Emelia’s arm to return the favour, and as she does that I am wondering if I should be running or if I can stay sitting on the stage four meters away, laughing. Ending our concert today is a blast. We are constantly laughing when performing the last two songs, I help Carolina to remove the cake from her neck when Julia has helped her wipe away most of the rest and we are 5 Pieces with the silly cake on the stage and goofy laughter, harmonized voices singing together and a dream fulfilled for another night. When the concert ends there is tons of cheering backstage. Our crew is cheering with us to congratulate everyone for the first day in Sapporo and celebrating Carolina’s birthday. We don’t have a party today, only because we have a concert tomorrow so after wrapping up at the arena we head to the hotel to get some sleep. “Kawayama is not the brightest, is she?” Julia asks when sitting down on the cosy chair in her pyjamas. “‘Get some sleep’… he-he, as if.” I smile at her joke and move further in the corner of the bed when Emelia lies down. All five of us have gathered in one of our hotel rooms in Sapporo, I am sitting on one of the two beds where Emelia is comfortably lying on while Maria is taking up the two-seated sofa with the cover from the bed and Carolina is on the other bed, spread out with chips and whatnot in a pile at the end of the bed for us all to take. Emelia has already taken a bag of gummy bears to have on her stomach. “Who cares what she thinks?” Maria mutters, “Carolina, you better have chosen a good movie or I am out of here.” “I choose a good one!” Carolina whines, not liking Maria’s disbelief in her. “It’s a good one…” Though Carolina says it is a good movie, I am doubtful like Maria; Carolina tends to choose very strange movies or very bad movies, which is why we never allow her to choose one but since it is her birthday and all … so she gets to choose. Carolina has the remote control but the chatting between us continues even when she starts playing the movie. “I’ve got it scheduled to record with Haesol after the tour,” Emelia is saying. She is constantly working on music, recording music too, but now she has gotten a plan to collaborate with different artists; have them feature in her songs. It’s quite cool actually, because she is talking about artists outside SM Entertainment, which is something I personally would never dare to even ask for. “You’ve got Haesol in on it?” Maria asks from her sofa some meters away. I don’t know who Haesol is. “I called him and asked if he wants to sing in my song and he said he thought I’d never ask,” Emelia chuckles. “He likes the song too.” “Which song is it?” I wonder as I have heard some of the songs she has been working on. “The same you’re in,” Emelia laughs and hits my leg, making me smile widely. I haven’t done an official recording, but Emelia showed me this song she has been working on for a year – she has showed it to me many times – and this summer she asked me to sing in the Japanese version. The awesome part about Emelia is that she has been working on songs for years, she has had solo releases made by the agency which is different from both me and Carolina who do solo mostly with our own songs (well, I have my album but I have released solo material before) which means Emelia is just working and working for fun, creating magic with other artists. “Watch the movie…” Carolina mutters while they keep talking about Park Hyekyung helping out with the recording. “I have already seen this one,” Emelia points out, “Hyekyung Oppa is close to Haesol so it won’t be a problem with the recording.” “Who is that?” I quietly ask Emelia. “Haesol?” she asks and raises her eyebrow when looking up at me. “Ah, it’s Zion.T.” “The one with a cool voice,” Maria adds. “Aah…” I nod “It’s Minions,” Julia comments on the movie, chewing on some snacks. “Didn’t we see this on the plane recently?” “No, it was on the train,” Maria corrects her. “It was on the flight,” Emelia corrects Maria. “I didn’t see it…” Carolina pouts. “Let’s just watch it,” Maria sighs, pulling the cover up to her ear. “This sofa isn’t that comfortable.” “Do you want to change?” I suggest for her. “No.” “Emelia, what is your summer fling doing?” Julia asks in Swedish all of a sudden, just when I thought we would make Carolina happy by focusing on the movie. “Eh, summer fling, they have barely done anything,” Maria complains. “Beside from making out countless of times,” Emelia boasts and I find myself biting my lip to not laugh. “Are you boasting about kissing?” Maria sounds bored and tired. “It’s more than what you have done,” Emelia mutters at her. Carolina suddenly laughs loudly and points at the TV, her voices kills every other sound in the room and this time I do laugh while Emelia grabs a pillow to throw at her. “Watch the movie!” Carolina sounds angry (she never sounds angry) when telling us. “Alright, ma’am,” Emelia sighs. She smiles after saying it but I don’t think Carolina loosens up. Carolina looks upset for many minutes, maybe because even after she laughed to make us focus on the movie we still ask each other to send the snacks here and there. Though we all have gathered to watch the movie, Maria falls asleep in the sofa, I go wash up in the bathroom, Julia is only focused on unwrapping some candy ad Emelia is sitting with her phone in hand. When I come out from the bathroom that is how I find them. In their own part of the really nice hotel room, my ladies does not seem to be part of the same crew, they look like strangers stuck up in a room together, and based on Carolina’s face-expression she is not enjoying the movie a single bit. I share room with Carolina this weekend in Sapporo. Her side is filled with crumbles from food while my side is pretty crowded with random stuff. I grimace at the sight of my side. I have bandage and band aid enough to probably cover my whole body, messily thrown out of my bag as I had taken it with me to the bathroom. The thing I get annoyed with my hands is when I wash up, when to shower or wash my hands or simply said when I have to touch water. It’s the most annoying thing I have ever done and I am impressed that I haven’t cut off my hands after struggling to shower and whatnot during these weeks. “Is anyone even watching the movie?” I quietly ask whoever is listening when I take my phone and sit down on the bed next to where Emelia is lying. “Mm,” Emelia mumbles without parting her lips. Carolina glances over her shoulder at us, maybe checking if Emelia really is watching the movie. But I know that Emelia’s eyes are on her cell phone. I put mine down when Carolina looks at us, just to not be one of those ignoring the movie too with a device of distraction in my hand. I did see this movie somewhere recently, which was why I went to wash up in the middle of it. I sit for just a minute in silence with them before tilting my head at the movie. “Carolina, which one does you like more? Minions the movie or … the other one with them?” I ask, just to forget the name of the movie when I have already started asking. “The other one,” she is fast to answer. “I like the kids in the other one; they are cute like ‘iihiihii’.” I laugh because I don’t know if her weird tone is an imitation of the kids in the movie or if she is just excited someone is watching the movie with her (or at least talking about it). “But I like this one too,” Carolina adds. After watching a few minutes more I decide I am too tired so I crawl in under the cover with my phone, and Emelia turns to lie on the side, her phone between us. “How’s your hands?” she wonders in a low voice. I look at my hands, at the new bandage covering from my thumbs down my wrists. “Like before,” I carefully answer, not sure if I want to describe the feeling for her again or if I should just be short with it. I don’t want to ruin the ending of the movie for Carolina either, so I keep it short. Emelia doesn’t seem to want a better description either as she tiredly sighs and rolls closer to lie on her stomach, so close to me that I can almost feel her breath next to me. “I’m tired,” Emelia breathes out. “Go sleep then,” I smile, rubbing her arm lightly. “Mm…” she answers and then sighs again. I can’t see her face next to me but I guess she has her eyes closed. Maybe she will fall asleep here. “We should get Maria to her room too,” I whisper. Emelia doesn’t answer this time and I am not in a hurry since I personally just lay down under the cover. I am looking around online through my phone for a few minutes. Even when the movie ends and Carolina is starting to get ready for bed does the other ladies not move an inch. It takes a few more minutes before I start patting Emelia, saying we are going to sleep now. She almost fell asleep on my bed. It takes at least twenty minutes before the three of them are out the room, leaving Carolina and me heading straight down in our beds. In the dark room I turn and twist until I find a comfortable position in my bed, and I blink in the darkness over at Carolina. “I’m sorry we didn’t pay attention on the movie tonight, Carolina,” I whisper against my pillow. “It’s alright,” she mutters back. “Are you sure?” I ask. As I ask it I regret it, it is the kind of question you shouldn’t ask, its annoying to repeatedly ask when you already got an answer. “Yeah,” Carolina sighs. “We should get some sleep now.” If Carolina doesn’t want to talk with me it could mean she is not alright with it. Or she is just tired and I am the one overanalysing things. “Okay… goodnight, Carolina.” “Night,” she mutters before I hear her turn away from facing me. I turn to lie on my back, staring out in nothing but darkness. Working with the ladies is always something I enjoy and long for, I don’t even mind our moods travelling as much as us as it is something always happening, even with Carolina bei